Hungarian paints, markings and camouflages

During the 2nd world war, the Hungarian Royal Air Force consisted mostly of German and Italian planes, either imported or licence build. Especially at the later stages of the war, these planes wore mostly used with the camouflage scheme they were delivered in. Hungary did however develop it’s own camouflage schemes. The paints used where of German origin, and distributed by E. Krayer and Co. Paint, Daub and Varnish Factory from at about 1938 onwards.

Research into these paints is still being done, with different sources citing different shades for colours.

Disclaimer: As with all pages of this type, the colours shown are an approximation. Monitors can change the colour displayed and don’t account for shading and glossiness. In reality these colours would also fade over time, and different batches could deviate quite a bit from the ‘official’ colour.

Krayer & Co. The Myth of Hungarian developed paints

Too long, didn’t read: Hungary did not develop it’s own paints. The G. series paints from Krayer where of German origin, and only redistributed by Krayer.

Győri Lakkgyár Durlin paints

Durlin was a line of paints distributed by Győri Lakkgyár Reichhold és Boecking (Győr¹ Lacquer Factory Reichhold and Boecking). The factory was founded December 1, 1922 by the Germans industrialists Reichhold and Boecking. In 1934 the factory started producing the “Durlin” line of syntetic enamel paints. During the war the plant was classified as a plant for military production. Four of the Durlin paints were used for markings. These were according to the RAL standard.

Colour chart

The following chart provides a comprehensive overview of the paints used by the Royal Hungarian Air Force. Some of these paints were used locally (the Krayer and Durlin Paints), most were however already applied on imported aircraft.

Krayer	Durlin	RAL	RLM	Colour	Gunze	Tamiya	Vallejo	Hataka	AK	MRP	AMMO Mig
G.1100	N/A	RAL 7005	RLM 63	Grey			71.260	HTK-_167	AK2331 AK11816 AK2034 RC270✝	MRP-057 MRP-A056	A.MIG 266
				Upper surface camouflage Krayer distribution of RAL 7005, produced by Herbig-Haarhaus A.G.
G.1101	N/A	N/A	RLM 65	Blue	H-067 C-115 N-067 S-115	XF-23	71.255	HTK-_029	AK2332 AK11817 RC935 (ex. RC271✝) AK2003	MRP-058 MRP-A057	A.MIG 231 ATOM-20127
				Lower surface camouflage Krayer distribution of RLM 65, produced by Herbig-Haarhaus A.G.
G.1102	N/A	RAL 8019	RLM 61	Dark brown	H-406		71.042 70.822	HTK-_168	AK2333 AK-11814 RC268✝	MRP-055 MRP-A054
				Upper surface camouflage Krayer distribution of RLM 61, produced by Herbig-Haarhaus A.G.
G.1103	N/A	RAL 6003	RLM 62	Green			71.104	HKT-_169	AK2334 AK11815 RC269✝	MRP-056 MRP-A055
				Upper surface camouflage Krayer distribution of RLM 62, produced by Herbig-Haarhaus A.G.
G.1114	15	RAL-3001	RLM 23	Red	H-414 C-114	XF-7	71.003	HTK-_103	RC005* RC811*	MRP-052 MRP-A051	–
				Nationality markings Krayer and Győri Lakkgyár distribution of RAL 3001 (RLM 23 in Luftwaffe service)
G.1115	122	RAL 9004	RLM 21	White	H-011 C-062 N-011 BN-01 S-001	XF-2 X-2 TS-26 LP-4	70.951 71.001	HTK-_001	AK11001 RC806 (ex. RC002✝)	MRP-004 MRP-A002	ATOM-20000 ATOM-20001 A.MIG-050 A.MIG-047
				Nationality markings Krayer and Győri Lakkgyár distribution of RAL 9004 (RLM 21 in Luftwaffe service) Sometimes attributed to 9001 (Cream), however this seems unlikely
G.1116	63	6002	N/A	Green		XF-2	70.968	HTK-_A338
				Nationality markings Krayer and Győri Lakkgyár distribution of RAL 6002 (No RLM equivalent in Luftwaffe service)
H.1795	N/A	RAL 7028	N/A	Earth yellow Ochre	H-403	XF-60	70.604	HTK-_244	AK2335 AK753 RC859 (ex. RC060✝)	MRP-037 MRP-A032
				experimental upper side camouflage
C.28/A	123	RAL 9004	RLM 22	Black	H-012 C-033 N-012	XF-1 PS5	71.057	HTK-_002	RC804*	MRP-005 MRP-A004	ATOM-20162
				Insignia. Cellaetern aircraft coating Krayer and Győri Lakkgyár distribution of RAL 9004 (RLM 22 in Luftwaffe service)
C.54	123	RAL 1004	RLM 04	Yellow	H-413 C-113	XF-3			AK11813 AK2091 RC934 (ex. RC267✝)	MRP-051 MRP-A050
				Cellaetern aircraft coating identification markings, spinners

The following (Krayer) product codes are also known, however no exact colour exists. It does give however some insight in the primers used

Krayer code	Product
G.1107	Cellaetern spray kitt for wood, white
G.1108	Cellaetern hole filler for plywood
G.1098	Cellaetern primer, red
G.1099	Cellaetern aircraft primer
G.1100	Cellaetern aircraft coating, grey
G.1110	Cellaetern aircraft lacquer diluent
G.1111	Cellaetern Nitro kitt, light grey
G.1112	Cellaetern Nitro kitt, dark grey
G.1114	Cellaetern aircraft aluminium primer
G.1105	Cellaetern aircraft adhesive lacquer, transparent
G.1106	Cellaetern aircraft adhesive lacquer, red
G.1113	Cellaetern aircraft light metal primer
G.1117	Cellaetern aircraft lacquer dispersion
C.72	Cellaetern aircraft coating, brown
C.88	Cellaetern aircraft coating, blue
C.93	Cellaetern aircraft coating, green

Camouflage schemes

In 1938 Hungary decided to unify their aircraft camouflages. Near the end of the year the Krayer company started supplying the paints for this endeavour. The exact pattern wasn’t set yet and would finalize over a period of time. This camouflage was abandoned around 1942, when planes were left in their original camouflage.

1938-1939 Green/brown mottle

Starting October 1938, some aircraft including Fiat CR.32, started to be repainted with the new camouflage colours. These machines were mottled over with G.1102 brown and G.1103 green, still showing their original aluminium or light grey camouflage underneath. Apparently here was no uniform, regulated pattern and camouflaging was left up to the creativity of the painter.

Grey-Brown-Green over Blue scheme

In addition to the brown and green colour, grey and blue also appeared and by the summer of 1939 the camouflage pattern had set on a wavy four tone camouflage. It consisted of G.1100 grey, G.1102 brown and G.1103 green in a wavy pattern. The underside was painted in G.1101 light blue.

This scheme was used mostly on early war machines, such as the Heinkel He 112 and Fiat CR.32, but was also experimentally used on the Bf 109. It however fell out of use during the introduction of the cross style roundel in 1942, after which planes were kept in their original German camouflage pattern.

H.1795 yellow

In addition to the aforementioned three upper camouflage colours, Krayer also supplied a yellow colour. While this colour is often shown on Ju-86 bombers and other aircraft, it may have been another, grey colour (such as RLM-02 or G.1100). H.1795 itself was seldom used. It is very similar, if not the same as the scheme used on Hungarian tanks of the time. To date, no actual samples have been recovered from wrecks.

Markings

Identification Number

Aircraft received a three digit identification number, prefixed with a letter indicating the purpose for which the plane was ordered. Registration numbers were allocated sequentially by aircraft type and in ascending order that followed the numerical order of the squadrons operating that type. Within each type, blocks of numbers were thus implicitly assigned to specific squadrons.

Letter	Hungarian	English
V	Vadász	Fighter
F	Felderítö	Reconnaissance (“Exploratory”)
B	Bombázó	Bomber
G	Gyakorló	Trainer
I	Iskola	Basic Trainer

Roundels

	Chevron
	1938-1943
	After the Hungarian air force became independent from the army, it needed a new roundel. This became the chevron roundel, applied to the tail (middle) and wings (on 7/8th length of the wing), pointing forward. If the plane had multiple tails, it was only painted on the outermost surfaces. Measured along the base, the ratio is 1/8 red, 5/8 white 1/4 green. (Decree № 30.418/1938). While the chevron was officially phased out in 1942 in favour of the new cross, it was still being applied in limited quantities as tail flash in combination with the German Balkenkreuz. This due to miscommunications or misinterpretations of the regulations.

Cross
1942-1945
Roundel				Tail and stabilizer tips
The standard markings of the Royal Hungarian air force. During the war against the Soviet Union in 1941, the chevron marking was found to be difficult to spot, resulting in friendly fire by German pilots. As a solution, a new roundel was implemented in 1942. The size of the white cross was not defined and would widely vary between aircraft. Sometimes only the black outline was painted, showing the camouflage within the cross. The white part was also sometimes painted over to reduce visibility. In other cases the cross wasn’t bordered by black at the sides The tail and stabilizers would often feature the Hungarian flag, to keep the national identity as the roundel was pretty much the inverted German Balkenkreuz.

	Misinterpreted roundel
	1944
	Wrong marking painted on some German imported aircraft due to misinterpretation of the regulations. As the roundel based around the inverse of the German Balkenkreuz, the instructions were sometimes misinterpreted as a complete inverse, without the additional black fillings.

	Alternate proposal
	1941
	Alternate roundel proposal for replacement of the chevron. (decree № 59.120/ 1941). Experiments however showed the roundel to be difficult to recognize. No photo’s of these experiments are known.

Sources:

• Dénes, B. and György, G. (2013). Hungarian fighter colours 1930-1945 (Vol. 1 & 2, White Series). MMPBookes. ISBN 978-8361421719 & 978-8363678210
• Dénes, B. and György, P., 2014-2015. „Magyartarka” – Lakkok, festékek, álcázószínek a Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő repülőgépein. Published in six parts in Haditechnika; 2014/4, 2014/5, 2014/6, 2015/1, 2015/2, 2015/3.
• Dénes, B. and György, „Magyartarka” testközelből, part 1 http://epa.oszk.hu/03000/03005/00048/pdf/EPA03005_MKL_2020_04_129-131.pdf, part 2: http://epa.niif.hu/03000/03005/00049/pdf/EPA03005_MKL_2020_05_162-165.pdf
• Egyéb, 2015. The Fighter Colours Of E. Krayer And Co. Paint, Daub And Varnish Factory. Hungarianfightercolours.com. http://hungarianfightercolours.com/the-fighter-colours-of-e-krayer-and-co-paint-daub-and-varnish-factory [Accessed 13 August 2020].
• Heimer, Ž., 2001. Hungary – Air Force. Fotw.info. https://fotw.info/flags/hu-air.html [Accessed 13 August 2020].
• Kovács, B., P., 2017. A hadijelzések és a terepszínű festés kialakulása a magyar királyi honvéd légierő vadászgépein. Katonai Logisztika 2017/1-2, p 184-219
• Győrlakk, Cégismertető. https://www.gyorlakk.hu/cegismerteto/ [Accessed 2 February 2026]

1. Győr is a city in Hungary, Győri is the demonym ↩︎